hey guys… i may sound pretty slow but i just wanted to ask right. i know helen keller flew a plane and wrote a book but.. how? like how did she know what the words meant, how did she know literally anything???? i know she was also engaged but how did she know they were proposing? how did she know what any words meant??? sorry i just need answers, it keeps me up at night.. like maybe is understand now but they didn’t even have sliced bread during this time but this blind and deaf women flew a plane???????

I saw today that elon musk is sitting at a networth of around 326 billion. I have a feeling he will be reaching half a trillion at some point within the next few years and a trillion within the next 10 years.

It got me wondering what kind of impact a trillionaire would be capable of that a billionaire wouldn't have the means to do.

edit: I'm referring to mega projects and not personal spending.

You know, sometimes you get caught up in your own life, and you wonder if you're really being the kind of friend people want or need. It’s easy to get insecure about these things, especially when life gets busy or complicated.

I’m really trying to figure out is what are some signs that I might actually be a good friend to others? Like, are there little things I might not even notice that show I’m doing okay?

I'm not homeless as I still live with my parents, but the other day reported an umbrella that I saw left on the train to lost and found. Then the thought occurred to me, can homeless people do this? If they reported themselves to council's lost and found, it would give them a shelter to sleep under in the harsh winter months.

I personally don't like to judge character based on superficial things like gender, good rule of thumb until now, but I have started to notice some little differences between how men and women understand the world around them, common thinking patterns different in each group, and I don't know if it is just my imagination or Im onto something.

Now, I don't actually believe that the differences in this aspects are because men and women have different brains. I know they say there are some structural differences between men and women brains, but I don't think they matter to this extent.

So I think the problem lies in society, how society and the people in it treat men and women differently, and how can those differences be manifested in common thinking patters for each sex. My theory?, "Women suffer because they are treated like they are stupid; Men suffer because they are treated like they cant be (not allowed to be stupid)". That doesn't mean I think that is how society works, but I think there is a global and difficult to notice trend that has a direct relationship with this phrase, and I think this is may be at least one of the root causes of this discrepancy in way of thinking: women act from the perspective others asume they are stupid, men act from the perspective others asume all that can go wrong is their fault. So I ask, if you think it may be true in some degree to you or people around you. I would also be grateful if there appears a women that can offer insight on if this is true at least for men, or what is the truth on this matter, since Im a man and I found it is pretty difficult to judge if this phrase is true or just the result of masculine thinking patters.

Note: when I say "Women suffer because they are treated like they are stupid", I refer to the misoginistic trends related to thinking women as incapable, or at least less capable, than men, and how that creates suffering that affects the way of thinking and understanding the world for women. Similarly, when I say "Men suffer because they are treated like they cant be stupid", I refer to the "toxic masculinity" trends related to thinking men should be capable and bear all responsibility, no excuses allowed, and how that creates suffering that affects the way of thinking and understanding the world for men.

I live on a fixed income and once attended a community breakfast at this church that helped lo-income and homeless people. This one church member would show up after the breakfast to vacum the carpet in the area where it's held. This one time, he referred to the breakfast attendees as Poor Simpletons. I was offended and brought this up with the church pastor. He deflected; seems that member is a rich contributor. I just couldn't stand the hypocrisy. And it's easier for most not to bother doing the right thing so why the insistence that it, decency, is everybody's default and they just don't know it yet?

Maybe therell be more ways to make life in the future specifically human but if thats the case it will still only be one or two additional ways. Beyond that, the same idea applies to everything else really. How many ways are there to ruin your life? Billions? How many ways are there for you to reach full satisfaction in your life? A handful? How many ways are there to irritate someone? Millions? How many ways are there to make someone happy? Far fewer. What does this say about life and humans? What does it say about the universe? How do you explain or make sense of this? Where is the balance? Or is there balance and that means all the evil stuff is insignficant somehow?

The people i talk to who think the world is so safe tend to not know about a lot of serial killers and mentally ill criminals etc. If they knew maybe theyd be a little more concerned about the things humans are capable of. And we dont know about all the killers who just never get caught. We can never know about those things. But what if we did? If you could know all the horrors and atrocities being committed on a constant basis by people all over the world and were keenly aware of it, how if at all would that change your perception of people in general and humanity?

For example let's say Chris Farley lived on and starred in Shrek and a bunch of other movies we was slated to that got other actors. His performances would have in a slight way altered most people's reality in ways we cant really project but say someone was so inspired their life changed course and subsequently then affected a whole other chain of events. Now because we can't visit other planets yet is the butterfly effect essentially limited to humanity's reach into the cosmos or could there potentially be other ways our behaviors here affect other worlds in an imperceivable way? And is this by design? Where do we demarcate where the effect stops and starts? What is that called? And should it be universal? What would prevent that? If an alien can change our world through a small event why cant we have the same effect on them or can we?

As an ideologically divided nation, a full on global conflict might be the time for a civil war amidst the chaos to not only bring an end to the conflict in negotiations with the belligerants, but obviously to discard the other half. Or are you 100% sure Americans would band together and put aside their beliefs to stand united? Is this in any way comparable to the America of the last two world wars?

I tend to think itll be different because today we cant really paint cartoons of the enemy with buck teeth and treat them as subhuman. I mean maybe we can, certainly one half. The other half would have to be highly hypocritical to fall into that and the reality is Americans of opposing politics have more reason to dislike each other than a random Chinese or Russian person. Even at war? That's what im not sure of.

I think it might be the natural course of life that people work to achieve something, they feel happy with their achievement, they have nothing left to fight for so they get softer and then whatever they made falls away eventually as no one wants to care for it or do the hard work. If we can automate the support then maybe that would work, but society seems to be reaching that point at least in the western world of reaching that softening wanting everything easy and convenient to the point of detriment. Is this a human thing or a west vs east thing?

Am I wrong about my assumption? It just seems repeatable in almost every facet of life. What is born dies. What is built crumbles. Yet we act like itll never happen for some reason which isnt helpful since preparing is what keeps it from happening. But as we hand the world off to the next gen who did nothing to earn it yet again, an even softer generation will be tasked to keep something going thay they're not even sure should.

What im really trying to ask is why are so many people blind to this when they really must know it's true? Is it an emotional immaturity or lack of something that keeps them from taking our future seriously? Because the only way it's going to happen is it we all blindly march toward it. You can be aware of how tenuous this all is and have that be a benefit. That's kinda how all the stuff got built to begin with. The average person looks at a building and thinks no way thatll ever collapse. Why can't most humans see things honestly without being called doomsayers?

In the past a worker would never want his work to be bad because yeah hed get humiliated and bullied for failure. These days thats less and less the case for better and yes for worse. Now a worker might not care as much because even if they did mess up theyd be treated respectfully. Is this an overreach to assume this type of cultural change is a problem for the future of our infrastructure?

I have a co worker at my new job who just isn’t good at her job. We work in a resteraunt that only needs one person for the last few hours. She closes the store but then I come in in the mornings and a lot of her tasks weren’t completed or she leaves a crazy amount of dishes. I can check on our system to see how much product we sold per hour and she only gets like 5-10 customers for the whole three hours she’s alone. The other day I decided to ask her what was going on. She just said she has a lot of stuff going on outside of work and needs to work on time management. I asked her if she felt she was capable of doing the job since it’s required to get those stuff done and she said yes. My manager said she will talk to her and get her extra training but she’s already been here for three months and has had multiple people train her with no changes. She will even leave the food prep line mid customer interaction and go in the back to clean a small dish for five minutes leaving the customers to stare and wonder where she went. Then when I try to give her tips she says she was a chef before so she’s very comfortable with how she does things and seems to get upset for the advice. Are people like this just not aware? Why do they insist they are capable of a job they fault to complete?

Hello everyone, today while scrolling through Instagram reels, I came across this news "Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant celebrated a $600 million wedding".

I’m not entirely sure who he is, but apparently his family owns a company in India, and she is an heiress whose family is in the pharmaceutical sector. Their wedding was attended by many celebrities, including Jeff Bezos. This wedding lasted 7 months... I mean, not their marriage itself, but the ceremony!

Now the question is... how is it possible to earn so much money? What do some people do for a living to amass such an impressive fortune? I wouldn’t even know how to spend that much, and honestly, the idea that someone can use all that money for a single wedding is pretty unsettling. Sure, there must be economic interests involved, maybe even public relations, but it’s still an incredible amount of resources for a single event.

I can’t help but notice the enormous gap between ordinary people and the wealthy. It has always existed, but now it seems much more pronounced — tell me if I’m wrong. I’m not asking this to figure out how to make all that money myself 😅 but because, as an ordinary person, there’s obviously something I’m not seeing, some mechanisms I don’t understand.

For example, they say that Rihanna, Justin Bieber, and Bocelli were at the wedding, as well as Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates.

I can understand inviting some of them, but the celebrities? What really happens in these circles? Why do they all know each other? Or do they simply have so much money and power that they can invite whoever they want just because they feel like it?

It realy bothered me so i tried multiple times in multiple places and i feelt it again and again, if i was trying it in the car it didn't work and just to be sure is fog and is not me I inhaled before entering my home and i feelt it and after entering i tried again to inhale air and didn't felt it so i am 100% was the fog and air outsied.
PS:the places i tried were several kilometers away and i still felt the taste

I am a registered independent and a moderate generally but all of my friends lean strongly in one political direction, as does my local area and state generally.

Whenever I am out with friends either in a small group or at a large gathering inevitably someone will bring up some controversial or political topic or mention a candidate in a way that’s very “of course this is the right way to think about this” or “of course we will all vote for this candidate” and I often do not agree with those positions.

If I disagree and attempt to start a discussion, people just walk away or give me angry looks for ruining the atmosphere/echo chamber.

So I usually just stay quiet, but that makes me increasingly uncomfortable because I must listen to others' opinions but I can't offer mine in return, like I can’t be myself.

Sometimes friends make insulting comments and assumptions about people in society who take the opposing side on certain issues, that doesn’t exactly make me want to jump in saying “hi, that’s me!”

I would be happy avoiding political topics at social gatherings altogether, I’m not the one to bring them up.

These are friends I’ve had for decades and this was never an issue until the past few years, now everyone who doesn’t agree with someone’s politics is an awful person and an enemy.

I have made many new friends in a new activity I joined, and the same phenomenon occurs there.

I’ve been avoiding all social gatherings of all kinds with all friends for months because I just can’t figure out how to navigate this. What do others do in this situation?

Answer any of these you want to:

1. What are your biggest fears as a 20 something yo. Or what were your biggest fears when you were in your 20s.

2. What is the biggest risk you took in your 20s. Something with potential for outsized returns in life.

3. What are some of the hardest things you did in your 20s. Any goals you hit. Like an ultra marathon. Or something cool like that

Feeling existential and lost. Help a fella out

There’s been a lot of conversation around efficiency, bureaucracy, and how to approach the funding of federal governmental programs.

The idea stems from a budgeting method/philosophy developed in the 1970s, where all expenses be justified and approved for each new budgeting period, typically each year.

What are your thoughts & perspectives?

So I own a book that was printed in the 1930’s and it has a pine green book cloth cover. I was wondering if it had arsenic in it because it is a pine green. Although it says arsenic was in books from the 1830-1880’s, I was curious to see if my book from the 1930’s had arsenic in the cover

I define burning bridges as making a conscious effort to remove that person from your life, in a manner that makes it impossible to restore to the former extent of connection.

I believe that people are allowed to remove people from their lives if the other person is taking away from your success, happiness, mental health, that type of thing. In other cases, I generally don't believe burning bridges can ever be acceptable. There is an active difference between not having someone in your life versus actively burning that bridge. You can ignore someone and not be their friend versus burning a bridge with them - but the question is, is it okay to burn a bridge outside of this criteria?

i (26m) have ended up in a lot of relationships that have been painful for me. i think that is has to do with the way i grew up, i feel like when i step outside of myself i’ve realized that i’ve always just wanted a safe family, i have always wanted the security of long term relationships and i wanted to get married and settle down, until i realized when i was talking to my aunt about my childhood (that i have mostly forgotten) that i was always filling the gap my father left, i was the kid that was making bottles and changing diapers by 5. we never had a secure home, always moving or homeless and i felt like it was my responsibility to step up without having any actual leadership on what makes a good man. i want to be the person i am for myself for once, i want to figure out my life and desires outside of love and partnership and being chosen, even when i am not being treated fairly or kindly. but now i find myself thinking i’m already almost 27 you know? i want to have a good and long life with my kids if i have them, and if i wait like i need to i won’t want them for a long time. also getting married, i think that’s different because you can still experience the love, but real love takes a very long time to build and i think i need a very long break from that, especially not before i figure out what i need as a human being on my own and what i need to do to heal. as far as the length of life and randomness of it goes, what would you call a good timeline of life? at what age or point does it become unfair to have kids? when is it time to pack up caring about wanting to have a family, and what can i do to stop desiring those things so badly if theyre not meant to be?

Why did my parents waste their time moving into a good neighborhood for the schools?

Why did my parents bust their buttocks affording good house in good neighborhood for the sake of schools? These schools don’t teach you any skills. They teach you liberal arts equivalents and nothing practical.

I never learned electrical, plumbing, construction, or even squad gunfire tactics in a military context. I didn’t learn anything except to write essays.

Why? Why did my parents waste their youth? How am I different from a kid in a bad neighborhood eking by? Why couldn’t my parents just say, “he’s going to Google everything anyway, why waste our time?”

I google everything I need.

Why did they have to pay the property taxes and why did they have to buy the house?

My education has been useless.

Things have been pretty tense on social media after the 2024 U.S. election. Is that impacting your personal relationships? 

We hear this the whole time, that the only person you need is yourself; but I think this is wrong. You need people to thrive in life no matter how much you despise people. So Im just asking for people thoughts and experiences on this topic.

I've been thinking about this not so long, so hopefully you understand what I mean...

There are difficult situations all of us have to go through at least once.

Although, are the difficult and stressful situations that builds us and let's us discover ourselves?

Or

We prepare and build ourselves in order to confront these challenges in our lives?

Been pondering this lately as it’s something we hear a lot. I’m 22f and child of divorce so i’ve always been intrigued about the psychology of love and relationships and marriage. What I don’t understand is that marriage is supposed to be a vow of for better or for worse. I understand sometimes people change, people betray each other etc and there are many valid reasons for divorce. But it always stumps me when people, especially those who were married, say “Oh we still love each other it just didn’t work out”… what happened to in sickness and in health? for good times and bad? i get it not every marriage is going to last but it sounds like they just give up on it when things get hard. In the case of my parents my mom has had a traumatic life which caused many deep mental health issues that my dad did not have the capacity to deal with i guess. But has anyone been in a situation like this? I guess i just wanna know if there are any older people in here with more life experience that can give me some insight because it’s discouraging to hear. Do people just give up on relationships too easily nowadays?

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the insight, i didn’t expect so many comments but i appreciate it. Even though i did mention them, this question wasn’t really about my parents because I know why they got divorced and they were honest with me about it. But there are a lot of solid perspectives in here. I go back and forth on how i feel about marriage a lot but i guess it’s just a made up tradition like most other things

I always feel weird when someone asks what my dream job is. Or my goal in life. I will usually say the answer that makes people laugh/chuckle (mattress tester) but in no way is that a dream of mine. I don’t want to take the time to explain to the person asking, that my dream is life. Living is my dream. Even though it’s not always fun, the end goal of everything is death. To be alive is the dream.

So I have to ask. What’s your dream?

Do you ever consider the difference in willpower people like top level athletes have and how that can be a different test depending on the sport?

What is your willpower? Is it as strong as you want? How do you test or strengthen it? To what degree is it trainable vs innate?